The Promoting Effective Forest Management Act of 2023 introduces a framework with sections addressing various aspects of forest management, including setting specific goals for thinning, improving wildfire reporting, and enhancing wildlife habitat. It also focuses on creating a resilient workforce, managing forest resources effectively, and implementing cultural changes within agencies overseeing forest management.

The section defines key terms used in the Act, including the “National Forest System,” which generally includes areas defined by previous legislation, except certain forest reserves and national grasslands. It also clarifies the term “public lands” and outlines exceptions to this definition, and defines the role of the “Secretary concerned,” specifying responsibilities related to managing different types of land.

The bill section outlines that each year starting in 2024, the Secretary responsible must set annual targets for thinning forests. These targets involve both commercial and pre-commercial thinning and should ensure that more land is thinned mechanically over time. Additionally, the goals increase significantly in specific future years and must be assigned by region or state and made available to the public online.

The Secretary of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management must annually publish reports by January 1, starting in 2024, detailing several activities regarding the National Forest System or public lands. This includes the number of acres treated or thinned mechanically, challenges faced, regeneration harvests, areas at risk due to insects, disease, or wildfire, use of streamlined environmental review methods, and collaboration with partners under various agreements.

The section outlines rules for reporting fire mitigation activities. It states that the Secretary of a department should not include certain repeated hazardous fuels treatments in budget requests or performance reports, but should report the total number of acres that meet specific fire safety requirements and where treatment effectively reduces wildfire risk.

The Secretary of Agriculture, via the Chief of the Forest Service, must assess and report every three years starting January 1, 2025, on whether the national forests are emitting more carbon than they absorb or vice versa, using forest inventory data, and publish these findings on the Forest Service's website.

The section requires the Secretary in charge to evaluate and improve wildlife habitats on federal lands within 18 months. Beginning in 2025, this includes setting yearly goals and reporting progress to designated congressional committees.

The section requires the Comptroller General to submit a report within 180 days to certain Senate and House committees. The report should estimate how long it would take for the Forest Service to update its land and resource management plans so they are compliant with a specific law, using faster timelines similar to those of the National Park System's plans.

The section outlines how old growth and mature forests are defined and managed. It requires the Secretary to follow existing definitions for old growth forests, but allows updates based on scientific advice. Mature forests are defined based on their growth for timber purposes, and the section specifies that only regeneration harvests can be conducted in these areas. It also ensures that the management duties of the Secretary remain unchanged by new forest inventories.

The text describes a pilot program led by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to research and evaluate wetland and riparian restoration techniques, focusing on their benefits for infrastructure, water storage, and resilience to natural hazards. Additionally, the Secretary of Agriculture is directed to initiate a separate pilot project on experimental forests to study biologically driven restoration methods.

In this section, a local government has the right to join a lawsuit about a specific type of project on national or public lands, especially if it is about reducing the risk of wildfire or generating revenue from timber. If they join the lawsuit, they are treated as a full participant in any settlement talks.

The bill section requires officials to work with ranchers to create a plan that uses livestock grazing to help prevent wildfires. This includes reviewing environmental impacts, using grazing to reduce fire risks, issuing temporary permits to control grass and weeds, and using grazing for recovery after fires.

The section discusses initiatives by the Secretary of Agriculture, together with the Forest Service, to develop training programs for the logging workforce, including apprenticeships. It also outlines plans to offer low-interest loans for modern machinery to improve safety for loggers.

The regulation mandates that, by May 1, 2024, guidelines are created to ensure federal wildland firefighters do not lose their retirement benefits if they take a voluntary break from service of up to nine months.

The section states that if a federal wildland firefighter is required to live in government housing, the amount deducted from their salary for rent cannot exceed 40% of their pre-tax income.

The section mandates that within three years of the law's enactment, for each public land and National Forest System unit with specified land, the responsible Secretary must use at least one of several streamlined authorities to conduct environmental reviews, referring to sections from the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The Secretary of Agriculture must reduce how often Forest Service employees are relocated to keep them at their duty station longer, and must also allow more people, not just current Forest Service employees, to apply for line officer positions. Additionally, the Secretary cannot pay more than $100,000 for an employee's moving expenses, and must create programs to help employees develop skills without needing to move.

The section of the bill repeals a specific reporting requirement by removing subsection (h) from Section 502 of the FLAME Act of 2009 and renumbering what was previously subsection (i) to become the new subsection (h).

The first section of the "Promoting Effective Forest Management Act of 2024" provides the short title of the Act and outlines its table of contents. The contents consist of four titles addressing various aspects of forest management, including treatment and reporting procedures, forest management techniques, workforce management, and agency cultural changes.

The section outlines definitions for key terms used in the Act, such as Federal land, which covers lands in the National Forest System and certain public lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. It also defines terms like hazardous fuels reduction activity and wildland-urban interface, specifying what each term includes and excludes, as well as what is meant by National Forest System and Secretary concerned.

The section mandates that the Secretary of the Department involved must set goals for reducing fuels and improving forest health on Federal lands by mechanically thinning trees and using controlled burns. These goals must be met annually from 2025 onward, gradually increasing over time, and must be made publicly accessible online. The activities specified in the section are exempt from certain environmental review requirements.

The section outlines that by September 30, 2025, and every year after, the Secretary in charge must publish reports online detailing the number of treated acres of federal land, using various methods like mechanical thinning and prescribed fires, in the past year. It also requires information on challenges faced, the use of streamlined environmental review authorities, and the involvement of partners in land management efforts, with specifics about areas at high risk due to insect infestation or wildfire potential.

The section requires that the Secretary provides a detailed report each year about the hazardous fuels reduction activities conducted on Federal land, which includes information like the number of acres affected, costs, and effectiveness in reducing wildfire risk. It also mandates standardized procedures for collecting and verifying data to ensure accuracy and requires sharing this information publicly and with Congress.

The Secretary of Agriculture must, by September 30, 2025, and every three years after that, assess the net carbon balance of lands in the National Forest System to determine if they are a carbon source or sink, using data from the forest inventory program, and then publish this information on the Forest Service's website.

The bill requires the Secretary responsible to report to certain Congressional committees within 18 months about methods to evaluate and improve wildfire risk reduction on Federal lands. The report should include ways to measure the success of fire prevention activities, track localized results, standardize monitoring measures nationwide, and address challenges in modeling and technology for wildfire risk mapping.

The section amends the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to allow for better management of trees near electric power lines and updates rules for permits to cut vegetation near these lines on federal lands. It increases the distance for managing hazard trees to 50 feet, corrects a spelling error, and establishes conditions under which forest or land managers can permit utility companies to remove vegetation without a timber sale.

The section amends the National Forest Management Act to increase the dollar amount threshold for certain timber sales on National Forest System land from $10,000 to $55,000.

The section defines "high-priority hazard trees" as trees that pose a danger to people or federal property due to their condition and location near certain roads or trails, and outlines activities to manage these trees, excluding areas like wilderness zones. It requires the Secretary of Agriculture to create a special rule to allow these hazard management activities without complex environmental reviews, but such projects must not be larger than 3,000 acres.

In this section, it is outlined that local government units and Indian Tribes have the right to intervene in legal actions related to certain projects on federal land, which must be near or have a notable connection to their jurisdiction. These projects need approval from the Secretary and must either reduce wildfire, insect, or disease risks, or generate revenue through timber harvesting.

The section requires the Secretary to create a strategy using livestock grazing to help reduce the risk of wildfires on federal land. This strategy should consider increasing the use of grazing permits, employing targeted grazing to remove hazardous fuels, using new technologies, and allowing temporary grazing on vacant lands during emergencies, without changing existing grazing programs.

The section allows the Secretary to hire Job Corps graduates for jobs starting in 2025 and in following years, without needing to follow the usual federal hiring rules, as long as the graduates meet the necessary qualifications.

The text outlines changes to how firefighters working for the federal government can earn retirement benefits. It updates the definition of "firefighter" to include certain supervisory roles and allows some past service to count towards retirement if specific conditions are met, such as making necessary contributions and fulfilling certain employment criteria.

This section aims to improve the affordability of housing for federal wildland firefighters by updating rental regulations for government-managed housing, requiring repair and rental rate adjustments for inadequate housing conditions, and planning to reduce rental costs for expensive firefighter housing. It also mandates studies and reports to assess rental rate accuracy and the impact of remote housing locations, with the possibility of reducing rates based on the findings.

The section requires that, within three years after the law is enacted, the responsible Secretary must use at least one of several specified legal options to streamline the environmental review process for certain federal lands. These options are laid out in various existing acts and sections mentioned in the text.

The section establishes a Pilot Program that encourages a partnership between public and private sectors to deploy and test innovative technologies for wildfire prevention and response. The program prioritizes emerging technologies, requires coordination with federal agencies, and involves annual reports to Congress until it ends in seven years.

The section of the bill repeals a specific reporting requirement by removing subsection (h) from Section 502 of the FLAME Act of 2009 and renumbering what was previously subsection (i) to become the new subsection (h).